18th Jan 2020 11:01:PM Editorials
Eastern Sentinel Arunachal News

Friday’s day-long conference at the national capital that discussed modalities to be adopted during house-listing phase of Census 2021 and National Population Register (NPR) which was attended by officials of Union Home Ministry and Registrar General of India has given a statement that it will not be mandatory for respondents to provide information regarding questions about the “place of birth of mother and father” in NPR form. But even after this ‘clarification’, it is not sure to what extent nerves will be soothed since a growing and undeniable perception is sweeping almost the entire populace particularly the Muslim community that NPR is the first step that would lead to the contentious nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) which is actually a tool to exclude them from citizenship rights in the pretext of cleansing the nation from ‘illegal migrants’. This apprehension has further invaded deeply  as CAA has come into play which will ensure refuge for all minorities from hand-picked countries except Muslims through citizenship. Amid all these, inclusion of Question No. 13(II) of the draft NPR form which seeks information about the parents’ place of birth have only fuelled controversies, compelling anyone to ask whether it is at all necessary, particularly at the current moment when the sea of controversies is showing fury.
It is pertinent to mention that various opposition-ruled states have reiterated their anti-NPR stand and Kerala and Punjab had already passed resolutions in their Assemblies to boycott the exercise citing reasons as ‘ for maintenance of public order’. Despite being debatable, the stand taken by them can’t be waived off as totally unreasonable since multiple factual details are available in public domain which corroborate the fact that NPR is supposedly the first step towards NRC compilation, which has now triggered the current anxiety that is slowly but surely taking shape of a mass hysteria. It can be recalled that during NPR exercise in 2010 no questions were asked regarding the parents’ place of birth and there can’t be any doubt either that the ongoing controversies wouldn’t have cropped up had there been no NRC proposal in the scenario or the controversial CAA in the context. Already the phrase- “kagaz nahi dikhayenge” has formed as the protesting slogan that has captured mass mood regarding NPR or the NRC, and with more states joining the non-cooperation line, it is not sure how the whole process will be carried out in a chaos-free manner.
It is really rather difficult to realise the rationale behind asking parents’ place of birth in a population register updation procedure. And nevertheless it might be kept a voluntary piece of information, suspicions for ‘sinister intentions’ fail to die out. In the current air of mistrust, this impractical inclusion is not which the nation needs.


Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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